ONLY a few decades ago cigarettes and alcohol were strongly associated with the glamour industry — remember Marlborough Man, the actor whose faced adorned millions of billboards the world over and the glossy pages of countless magazines, and later died of lung cancer.
More inimically, as addictive as they are, they became synonymous with sports especially Formula One motor racing and football.
That era fortunately has gone in most countries, but breweries still feature as official partners at football clubs, including in the world’s richest and most followed football league, the English Premier League (EPL) together with the other top European leagues — La Liga in Spain, Serie A in Italy, and Bundesliga in Germany.
Today the beautiful game is plagued by a new scourge of addiction — sports betting, which in Britain is a substantial component of the £14 billion (RM76 billion) gambling industry and has become “a hidden epidemic”. The capture of football and other major sports by online betting sites, associated casinos and betting shops is now becoming entrenched, albeit alarm bells are starting to ring.
Sports betting are now pervasive on all the continents thanks to mobile telephony, the Internet and social media. It is far from a “Western” phenomenon and is entrenched in Asia, especially China, Singapore, the Philippines and India, where criminal betting syndicates are exploiting the phenomenon to fix matches, by bribing players, referees, officials and even administrators.
A common feature at football clubs today are betting kiosks, where punters can place bets with the utmost “normalcy” egged on by adverts by celebrities and marketing “innovations” including the “bet now” and “bet in play now” offers in breaks during games that offered improved odds for a short period.
The number of football clubs with betting firms and online casinos on their shirts is disturbing, because it normalises gambling, particularly among young people, as part and parcel of supporting your sport or team.
Both Conservative and Labour governments in Britain have tended to play lip service to the problem by dragging out policy initiatives aimed at regulating and tackling the causes of addiction.
In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan even appointed the country’s erstwhile chief executive officer of the state-owned sports betting company, Spor Toto, Mehmet Muharrem Kasapoglu as his new minister of youth and sports.
Recently, a group of cross-party MPs in the House of Commons demanded that gambling companies should be treated like tobacco firms and forced to display prominent health warnings about the potential harms of betting. They want betting to be treated as a public health issue, with companies forced to drop suggestions that it is “fun” rather than harmful, and gambling ads to be banned during live sporting events because it allows bookmakers to reach young viewers before the 9pm watershed television viewing time.
Britain, says GambleAware, the charity that campaigns and broadens public awareness of “gambling-related harms”, has a staggering 430,000 over 16 problem gamblers including 25,000 youngsters under 16 addicted to gambling.
How many fans know that during Fifa 2018 World Cup in Russia in June/July, the big “winner” of the beautiful game’s quadrennial jamboree were the global multi-billion dollar sports betting and gambling companies which raked in billions in bets?
The growing influence of the sports betting business has been in collusion with sports administration bodies, clubs, managers and past players, and even governments, who also rake in millions in tax revenues.
The websites of major betting firms eulogise that they are doing a community service by offering “first class online entertainment” and “a seamless and enjoyable customer experience and journey”, juxtapositioned with a cleverly-worded disclaimer on support for responsible gambling and taking action against gambling addiction. They support this through membership in the UK, of the Gaming Commission and GambleAware.
During Fifa 2018, British television viewers were exposed to almost 90 minutes of betting adverts during the tournament, with the disturbing allegation that children were being targeted and encouraged to gamble. Betting ads accounted for almost a quarter of all adverts on British TV during the World Cup and had more screen time than traditional fast food and beer commercials.
The future does not augur well. A major boost will come from the United States where sports betting is now legal after a Supreme Court ruling in May — the share price of major British gambling firms targeting the North American market is expected to soar.
Of the 20 EPL clubs, Watford, Cardiff City, owned by Malaysian tycoon Tan Sri Vincent Tan, and Brighton & Hove Albion, have no betting firms as partners. The remaining 17 all have major betting firms as lead, shirt or regional sponsors. Arsenal has a staggering five betting firms as partners targeting fans not only in the UK and EU but also in China, Africa and Latin America. Newcastle United and Leicester City each have three betting firms as partners.
Are the football establishment and club owners aiding and abetting addiction to gambling? It is time that Fifa and its national affiliates and governments confront this unholy alliance between football and gambling. If fans want to bet on a match, let them do so at arms’ length, with no aiding, abetting and profiteering from their clubs.
The writer is an independent
London-based economist and writer